4. With 3000 CFM of air being rammed in by the supercharger on overdrive, the fuel mixture is compressed into a near-solid form before ignition. Cylinders run on the verge of hydraulic lock at full throttle.

6. Nitromethane burns yellow. The spectacular white flame seen above the stacks at night is raw burning hydrogen, dissociated from atmospheric water vapor by the searing exhaust gases.

7. Dual magnetos supply 44 amps to each spark plug. This is the output of an arc welder in each cylinder.

8. Spark plug electrodes are totally consumed during a pass. After 1/2 way, the engine is dieseling from compression plus the glow of exhaust valves at 1400 degrees F. The engine can only be shut down by cutting the fuel flow.

9. If spark momentarily fails early in the run, unburned nitro builds up in the affected cylinders and then explodes with sufficient force to blow cylinder heads off the block in pieces or split the block in half.

10. In order to exceed 300 mph in 4.5 seconds dragsters must accelerate at an average of over
4G's. In order to reach 200 mph well before half-track, the launch acceleration approaches 8G's.

11. Dragsters reach over 300 miles per hour before you have completed reading this sentence.

12. Top Fuel Engines turn approximately 540 revolutions from light to light!

13. Including the burnout the engine must only survive 900 revolutions under load.

14. The redline is 9500 rpm!

15. Assuming all the equipment is paid off, the crew worked for free, and for once NOTHING BLOWS UP, each run costs an estimated US $1,000.00 per second.

The current Top Fuel dragster elapsed time record is 4.44 1 seconds for the quarter mile (10/05/03, Tony Schumacher).

The top speed record is 333.00 mph (533 km/h) as measured over the last 66' of the run (09/28/03 Doug Kalitta).

Putting all of this into perspective:

You are driving the average $140,000 Lingenfelter "twin-turbo" powered Corvette Z06. Over a mile up the road, a Top Fuel dragster is staged and ready to launch down a quarter mile strip as you pass. You have the advantage of a flying start. You run the 'Vette hard up through the gears and blast across the starting line and past the dragster at an honest 200 mph. The 'tree' goes green for both of you at that moment. The dragster launches and starts after you. You keep your foot down hard, but you hear an incredibly brutal whine that sears your eardrums and within 3 seconds the dragster catches and passes you. He beats you to the finish line, a quarter mile away from where you just passed him. Think about it, from a standing start, the dragster had spotted you 200 mph and not only caught, but nearly blasted you off the road when he passed you within a mere 870 feet while traveling down the 1320 foot long race course.

Donny, That's probably all true,The Atlanta International Dragway is about 7 miles from my house. We get to go over every once in a while and it's amazing what the dragsters and top fuel cars can do these days. Be interesting to get data like this on the drag bikes!!

I bought an old tractor all dusty and worn,knew nothing about her just the year she was bornI washed her and greased her and painted her redNow she lives happily right here in my shed.